LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A con man who was convicted twice in New York for bilking victims out of millions of dollars through financial fraud schemes was behind bars Tuesday in Los Angeles on charges of running similar scams locally, allegedly luring victims by claiming to be well-connected with big names in Hollywood and the finance world.
According to jail records, David Bloom, 59, was arrested around 4 a.m. Monday by the Los Angeles Police Department, and he was being held in lieu of $505,000 bail. The Los Angeles Times, which broke the news of his arrest, reported that Bloom was charged with nine counts each of grand theft and fraud while selling securities.
District Attorney George Gascón is expected to hold a late-morning news conference Tuesday to discuss charges in the case.
According to The Times, Bloom allegedly targeted would-be victims at a luxury apartment complex and at bars, including the Frolic Room on Hollywood Boulevard, telling people he had an inside track on not-yet-public stocks and offering them a chance to get in on the ground floor of lucrative investment opportunities. But victims said they never saw any profits, despite giving Bloom thousands of dollars, the paper reported.
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Bloom, once dubbed the Wall Street "Whiz Kid," pleaded guilty to mail and securities fraud in New York in 1988 and was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for convincing people to give him financial investments totaling more than $15 million, but he instead spent the money on himself, The Times reported. He pleaded guilty again in the late 1990s for bilking 10 people out of at least $50,000 in a similar scheme that targeted various restaurant employees.
The Times reported last year that Bloom had been targeting victims locally, including several at the Frolic Room near Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. According to the paper, Bloom convinced multiple patrons he could get them tickets for the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, but he never came through. He convinced another that he was acquainted with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and could pass along a screenplay the bar patron was writing, The Times reported.
Another woman told the paper that Bloom would target people at a high-end apartment in the Franklin Village area, offering them opportunities to purchase shares of stock that were not yet available to the public. But after collecting their money, he disappeared.
Police told The Times some victims eventually got partial refunds, but investigators suspect he merely repaid them with money bilked from other victims. Bloom was initially arrested last August but was not immediately charged, so he was released from custody.
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